Peng Dehuai

Peng Dehuai (24 October 1898-29 November 1974) was the Minister of Defense of China from 1954 to 1959, preceding Lin Biao. Originally a general of warlord Wang Jingwei and Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, Dehuai later joined the Chinese Communist Party and served under Mao Zedong as a general during the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II, Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War.

Biography
Peng Dehuai was born on 24 October 1898 in Shixiang, Xiangtan, in Hunan Province in western eastern China. Peng was born to a poor family and they had to suspend his education when he turned ten, and he worked for several years as a manual laborer. When he turned sixteen in 1914, he became a professional soldier and served in the armies of various Chinese warlords over the next ten years, rising to Major. In 1926, he joined the Kuomintang and took part in Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition against rival warlords. Later, he supported Wang Jingwei, but then returned to Chiang and the Kuomintang. While serving with Chiang, he was introduced to communism and became a member of the Chinese Communist Party (Chicom). He allied himself with Zhu De and Mao Zedong, and he defended the Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet from 1931 to 1934, rivaled only in prestige by Lin Biao. During the retreat from the soviet during the Long March, Dehuai began to realize the predicament of the Chicom. Peng was successful in arranging a ceasefire with the nationalists, and in 1940 he commanded communist units of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China against the Japanese in the Hundred Regiments Offensive of 20 August-5 December.

Disputes within the Chicom led to Peng being removed from command, but after the Japanese surrender in 1945 he was recalled and defended Shaanxi and Northwest China from the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War of 1945-50. He captured Xinjiang in addition to other Nationalist territories, and was one of the key figures in the Chicom victory during the conflict. Shortly after, he was one of the few generals who backed Mao Zedong's plan to get involved in the Korean War against the United Nations forces, commanding the People's Volunteer Army until 1952, when Chen Geng took command. His experience in the war, which left 1,000,000 Chinese troops dead, led him to try to reform the Chinese army into a Soviet Army-style modern fighting force.

However, in the 1950s he met his downfall. He resisted Mao's cult of personality and the Great Leap Forward, which led to widespread famine and death. In 1959, after open confrontation at the Lushan Conference, Peng was purged from all political offices and in 1966 was arrested during the Cultural Revolution. From 1966 to 1970, his rival Lin Biao and Mao's wife Jiang Qing persecuted Peng and subjected him to torture in attempts to get him to confess his "crimes". He died in prison in 1974, but in 1976 the new Chinese premier Deng Xiaoping did much to exonerate Peng, who is now recognized as one of China's greatest generals.